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It took years of pressure by indigenous groups, but an inquest is underway in Canada into the deaths of five First Nations teens who drowned in two rivers in Thunder Bay, Ontario. As the CBC reports in a lengthy look at the issue, the five male teens were between 15 and 18, and they drowned in separate incidents between 2000 and 2011. All had come to Thunder Bay from remote, impoverished communities to get a high school education. Did they drown accidentally? Were they killed? Did they commit suicide? The inquest aims to answer those questions, as well as those surrounding the deaths of two other First Nations teens in non-drowning incidents. "You’re sending your kids out to get an education and they come back in a bodybag," says Joe Meekis, a former chief of Keewaywin First Nation.

So much time has passed, however, that the prospect of fresh evidence in the cases is slim. Still, the inquest is shedding light onto larger issues at play: the struggles of First Nations teens who arrive in a city and stay with boarding families, ill-equipped to deal with the strange new world and the racism they encounter. Many turn to alcohol. One of the drowned youths was a gifted painter named Kyle Morriseau, whose father, Christian, draws solace from a First Nations legend about a slumbering giant. The giant promises that his people's spirit will rise in seven generations—Kyle's generation. Christian Morriseau says his son allowed his life to be taken to raise awareness about the troubles of First Nations students. "I know today, by what happened to him, that Kyle fulfilled his dream of wanting to do something meaningful," he says. "I'm proud of my son." (Read the full story.)

In my state, they are almost always Latino males 15 to 18. They are from high school and almost always on a group trip, usually a Catholic school trip. Scenarios are all the same. Alpha male of the group, bragging the whole time about swimming ability while on the way to the lake, usually at state lake at a state park. They approach and that one male is ready at the door to jump out. Van or bus stops, he lunges out and runs for the dock. He runs the length of the dock and then jumps right in to the deep area. Usually a very low BMI kid, they sink like a rock. Many of them so low of a BMI they never surface at all, they literally just drop in 10-20 feet water and our lakes tend to skew to the more murky. We have no clear lakes except in the far eastern parts of the state. People look for them but don't find them. The area is cleared and the state lake patrol sends the highly sensitive sonar system. I worked two incidents like this one on Lake Eufaula near Crowder Point, a favorite spot of Latino kids from McAlester.

the one

Apr 5, 2016 2:03 PM CDT

Swimming lessons, It's all about the swimming lessons....

$82496178

Apr 5, 2016 1:57 PM CDT

Justice in Canada is as tattered as it is anywhere else. Controversy still swirls around the downing of Swissair flight 111, in waters off of Nova Scotia. Canada's Transportation Safety Board never could give a definitive answer to the cause of the plane's downing, and pressured the RCMP homicide commander assigned to the case, to drop his criminal investigation. Politics and justice, like oil and water, do not mix.